Scissors discovered in trash lead to Bradley evacuation

The discovery of a pair of scissors in a trash can at Bradley International Airport Tuesday led to the evacuation and rescreening of all passengers in one of the airport’s two terminals.

The scissors were found by a janitor at about 6:30 a.m. in the trash can of a women’s bathroom located between the metal detectors and the boarding area of Terminal B, said Rollin Tebbetts, the airport’s operations manager.

The terminal was evacuated at 7:17 a.m. American Airlines Flight 623, which had left the boarding area but had not yet taken off for San Juan, Puerto Rico, was ordered to return to the terminal area, he said.

Passengers on that flight were ordered to get off the plane and go through security again. Flight 623 took off within an hour, said Jim Peters, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration.

Passengers were also taken off other, already loaded planes and rescreened.

By 8 a.m., the 824 passengers in the terminal had all gone through the metal detectors a second time and the terminal was reopened, Peters said.

About 600 passengers aboard eight flights which had previously taken off were screened again when they reached their destinations, he said.

“I think it’s the right thing to do, and I don’t have a problem if there is a delay for all the right reasons,” Paul Kasinski, a passenger from Cincinatti, Ohio told WSFB-TV. “If there is a security breach, no matter how big or how small, I think it’s important we have airtight security.”

Ten flights were delayed by the incident. Operations were back to normal by about 9:30 a.m., Tebbetts said.